15 comments:

Sue, your words and photo bring to mind an old favorite Chinese proverb with the suggestions of renewal and optimism. "If you keep a green bough in your heart, the singing bird will come." Maybe someday a seed will fall upon its barrenness. Yours are thought provoking lines which lend themselves readily to environmental concerns which we all have.

barbs.haiku -- one would like to think that would be true, but its not. To see the proof, go to the weather channel page for Hemphill, Kentucky 41825 and click on the interactive weather map, select "satellite" view, and magnify five or six times -- you'll see the 5, 10 and even 20 year old scars on the earth left by strip-mining. The "reclaimation" of stripmines involves compacting the earth in such a way that it is nearly impossible for trees to grown on it, and only foreign grasses seeded by the companies take hold and choke out the native grasses and shrubs.

I have lived around strip mining, it isn't pretty. And back then, there was no reclamation. Same goes with clear cutting forests. Thank God, people are getting smarter now that they have less to work with.

Provocative piece. Humans are such slow learners...I live in an area surrounded by 'superfund sites' and even as the attempt to clean up is made, there are plans afoot to decimate other areas. Amazing. Your work is impressive!

Sunflower Roots

Remember roots,deep in the moist dark.Nurture what abides,cultivate passion.Reach out to the sun and the rain;Stretch to embrace the fear.Delve deep withinfor the wellsprings of joy.Kindle the creative spark, andDance on the winds again.